And hello! Back to the Indian food! There was a place around a half a mile away, so I went for it...and then the rain came, and I got wet. The food was really good, and even though the waitress wouldn't let me order what I wanted (telling me it was too spicy...but how can I find out if I can handle it if you won't let me try it?), I got over that. I was sincerely pissed for a while, though. Their stuff is definitely spicier than average, so...ok.
 |
| potatoes and cauliflower = aloo gobi |
 |
| photo by The Kippen Conner |
Asheville! Sold out. It was kind of boomy, and 1,050 people are pretty noisy, but it was a fun first show of the run. Man, it was hot, though. The feeble air conditioner just couldn't keep up. We were all pretty sweaty at the end.
Friday: We went ahead and ate closer to Asheville at a Mexican place that appeared to be a former Pizza Hut. Not great, but decent. As I am much more aware of the every place's recycling situation, it was really annoying to see that the salsa bar was stocked with little plastic cups.
I drove most of this day's trip, mostly in the rain, and everybody else in the van was scared to death.
The Ritz in Raleigh where we played was different from other venues where we've played recently. For one thing, it was kind of in an industrial warehouse sort of area, so the food options were limited. It looked like we were going to order pizza for after the show, so I ordered...INDIAN FOOD!...and had it delivered after soundcheck. This turned out to be a good move because 1. It started raining, and the dudes who were going to walk to Subway were turned back; 2. the after-show pizza thing fell apart, so those who intended to eat then were left with nothing. Grubhub for the win.
I know that security is there to keep us safe, but they were pretty tight--we all had wrist bands put on us as we got out of the van, and then we had to go through a metal detector. It's for our own good, but I really don't like having to wear a wrist band when we perform. I wish there was a nicer way to deal with it.
 |
| Chana masala. Wassup. |
One other thing that was weird about this place was that the staff was kind of pushy. They had some sort of party in the lobby at 6:30, and we were given the vague threat that they'd cut power if we hadn't finished sound checking by then. At 7:30, a staff member came to me off stage while I was warming up to tell me that the doors were now open (nothing directly, but I took that to mean that I should stop playing). I took my saxophone and found a backstage stairwell where I could play a little more.
Nice looking crowd! The place where we used to play in Raleigh was kind of dark and dumpy, and this place was quite an upgrade. According to the internet, this place can hold 1,974 people. We had something like 1,300 people (I think---I'm fuzzy on this one). Where would 650 more people go? It was really full, and super cool to find that many people here when we haven't come through that often.
And now I would like to tell the story of my most gloriously stupid fuckup in recent memory. Remember how I took my saxophone and went into a stairwell to play some after the doors had opened? I stuffed the socks I'd worn the previous night in the bell (to cut down on the volume), aaaaaaaaannnnnnddddd...I forgot to take them out, and when we got to my big solo in Biggest Part of Me, my saxophone felt really stuffy and the sound was really muffled, and neither I nor Zach could figure it out. Assuming that something in my microphone set up was failing, I tried to play my big solo into Nick's mic, and it was tragic.
Zach took my sax mic and tested it during the next song, and it seemed to work fine, so he thought maybe I should change my frequency. When I laid the horn across my lap to adjust the transmitter, I could see the dark brown of the socks in the bell keys. I'm an idiot. Nothing I could do but laugh...for like four songs. Damn.
I do love this sign backstage, though. A few weeks ago I started carrying a large travel mug so that I wouldn't have take a plastic coffee cup from a hotel lobby, and in the evening I fill it with water when they have a water cooler instead of opening a bottle of water. Doing my part! I hope they're also recycling all of those plastic cups and aluminum beer cans that get dropped on the ground during our show.
Saturday: On to Charlotte! Why does North Carolina feel like you can drive half the day and not leave the state?
We played to a sold out Fillmore in Charlotte (2,000 people!). Wow! Best sounding stage of the run, too. As you might expect, I was disappointed that I couldn't redeem myself--no big sax solo this evening. Damn those socks. Then again, I got multiple positive comments from the band about my outro solo on Maneater, so I guess that'll have to do, even if I didn't think there was anything particularly outstanding about it.
This place is really easy to deal with--the load in isn't bad, the stage is pretty big and sounds really good, the green room area is decently big, and there are a couple of food options in the immediate vicinity. Even with the a massive downpour after soundcheck (a couple of us got trapped over at the pizza place), and a massive downpour at load out (fortunately, the band isn't involved in loading gear anymore), we had an easy time of it. And jeez...a massive crowd. Things were loose on stage, but it was still a nice night of work.
A little saxophone stuff here: I have played altissimo B on alto like this for years.
It turns up as the last note of Baker Street, and it's also in the Heart to Heart solo. It's also crazy sharp, so I try and lip it down. I heard yet another social media post of me playing Baker Street with a painfully sharp high B, so I changed to this fingering as of today at soundcheck:
which is just as stable, and a lot closer to being in tune. So...going forward, I'll use this and it'll sound better. Thank you very much.
Sunday: Ugh. 8 AM lobby call to boogie back to Atlanta. After a couple of hours at home to eat lunch and (um) "use the bathroom," and grab some gear, we went back to work, this time at Venkman's for an Unplugged set. These are mostly fun, as the "try anything" nature of the evening means that some things (talking about my fiery crash on the Hey Nineteen solo) start well and then fall apart. All in all, it's nice to play the songs and not be so married to the recorded versions, though. We can all be a little creative in our approach.
I did have some nice flute moments--Sara Smile was cool, and I was heating it up on Lotta Love and Lowdown. People cheered loudly for the solo on Africa (maybe because I didn't mess it up? I don't know).
 |
| through the secret window |
Off to Texas (mostly) this week.
